So i'm running a multilib system amd64 and i got an ASROCK ALive Sata GLAN board running.
I thought there was hardware mixing finally (before i had nforce-chipset, intel8x0), but well, if there is, i couldn't get it to work.
The driver i use is snd_hda_intel from alsa-driver package.
Now as every application that accesses ALSA for sound output tends to block the soundcard completely so no other sound can be played,
i set up dmix according to http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_ALSA_sound_mixer_aka_dmix this guide.
It's a little weird now, because sound mixing seems to work sometimes. For example i can use TeamSpeak (aoss32) and Audacious simultaneously, IF i start Teamspeak first. Wine won't play sound if any other software already plays sound, though, even if it also uses OSS + aoss32.
Also i can mix Firefox-Flash sound with audacious sound output, if firefox was started before audacious.
Mplayer and Audacious won't both play sound at the same time, though.

From the above link, this is my dmix config (/home/morimando/-asoundrc)

# I also had to add/alter the following, making ALSA use dmix by default
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmix"
}

In make.conf i also set the sound card

Code:

ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel"

Anyone knows more about how to setup all this? Maybe i'm missing something specific about the card or something general about the configuration of dmix?
TIA_________________That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting.
-- Marvin

Best treat it as if nothing would work, because most of the time that's how it is

Edit: would Jack be a good thing to consider?_________________That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting.
-- Marvin

I found that the snd-hda-intel driver doesn't work properly with ALSA 1.0.14, which is the version available via emerge. Every time I tried to load it, I found a kernel 'oops' in dmesg. In order to get it working, I had to install the mercurial version of alsa-driver.

Here's how I got it working:
Note: This will install a development version of alsa-driver. While I haven't had problems with it, it could theoretically cause issues, especially with the kernel.[/i]

First, I had to modify settings in the kernel and then recompile it. Turn off ALSA and OSS support, but make sure basic sound support is enabled:

I compiled Souncard support as a module, but it probably doesn't matter whether it's a module or built-in. Just make that it gets loaded if you compile it as a module.

Next, I went to http://www.alsa-project.org/ and downloaded the current stable version of alsa-lib and alsa-utils (Library 1.0.14a and Utilities 1.0.14). Then I decompressed them and left them alone for now.

Code:

# tar xvf alsa-lib*
#tar xvf alsa-utils*

Now for the alsa-driver package itself. If you don't have Mercurial installed, you're going to need it:

I'm gonna test that tonight or tomorrow, depending on when i got time.
The hda-intel from emerge works in general, at least in my system, it's just not working with hardware mixing and dmix doesn't seem to work as intended, as i get the same problems with dmix that i get without dmix. (Namely that one program accesses the soundcard and plays sound and no other application that uses alsa output can play back any more)
Do the hardware mixing capabilities work with mercurial?_________________That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting.
-- Marvin

I'm gonna test that tonight or tomorrow, depending on when i got time.
The hda-intel from emerge works in general, at least in my system, it's just not working with hardware mixing and dmix doesn't seem to work as intended, as i get the same problems with dmix that i get without dmix. (Namely that one program accesses the soundcard and plays sound and no other application that uses alsa output can play back any more)
Do the hardware mixing capabilities work with mercurial?

Hardware mixing appears to be working fine on my system (without dmix).

Hardware mixing appears to be working fine on my system (without dmix).

Not here. I was unable to get sound to work at all until I installed the Mercurial drivers (9999). Now that I have the Mercurial drivers installed, I get sound, but *only* the software volume controls work. The Mute button mutes the sound, and the up or down volume buttons cancel the mute, but they don't adjust the volume up or down.

The mercurial drivers don't work for me (maybe a bad day? ^^), i removed the old alsa and then did as described, but the system seems to have problems with the resulting module or something like that, alsaconf inserts "snd-*** err /libplow" something into the configuration file instead of the module and system hangs if i modprobe it myself _________________That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting.
-- Marvin

Hardware mixing appears to be working fine on my system (without dmix).

Not here. I was unable to get sound to work at all until I installed the Mercurial drivers (9999). Now that I have the Mercurial drivers installed, I get sound, but *only* the software volume controls work. The Mute button mutes the sound, and the up or down volume buttons cancel the mute, but they don't adjust the volume up or down.

This is all on my T61.

I guess I'm kinda' missing your issue here; do you have no hardware mixing, or are your volume-control buttons just not working "properly"? If your issue is the buttons, I don't know of anybody yet that has managed to get them working completely. If you aren't getting hardware mixing, with what you've said, the only thing I can figure out is that you emerged the Mercurial drivers while I got them directly from the ALSA-Project's Mercurial repository.

I found that the snd-hda-intel driver doesn't work properly with ALSA 1.0.14, which is the version available via emerge. Every time I tried to load it, I found a kernel 'oops' in dmesg. In order to get it working, I had to install the mercurial version of alsa-driver.

Here's how I got it working:
Note: This will install a development version of alsa-driver. While I haven't had problems with it, it could theoretically cause issues, especially with the kernel.[/i]

First, I had to modify settings in the kernel and then recompile it. Turn off ALSA and OSS support, but make sure basic sound support is enabled:

I compiled Souncard support as a module, but it probably doesn't matter whether it's a module or built-in. Just make that it gets loaded if you compile it as a module.

Next, I went to http://www.alsa-project.org/ and downloaded the current stable version of alsa-lib and alsa-utils (Library 1.0.14a and Utilities 1.0.14). Then I decompressed them and left them alone for now.

Code:

# tar xvf alsa-lib*
#tar xvf alsa-utils*

Now for the alsa-driver package itself. If you don't have Mercurial installed, you're going to need it:

Works fine now with nforce5 chipset (also intel hd audio, but by nvidia). Hardware mixing works with newest alsa ootb. Could be because dmix is implemented as standard as of the latest release (update, remove ~.asoundrc /etc/asound.conf, works)_________________That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting.
-- Marvin